Radio frequency identification tags are coming, but are they friend, foe, or just too expensive?: WalMart's mandate of RFID tags on products entering their maelstrom will push the adoption of the technology, but some of the futurists' visions of milk carton's reporting in to their home base when they're empty seem like a combination of The Jetsons and 1984.
RFID tags are also way too expensive for this vision of the future -- whether AT&T "You Will" utopic or Brave New World dystopic. The cost has to come way down to make them useful for individual products and shelves. Right now, the palette level is the right price point.
(Intrepid staffer Nancy Gohring filed the story for The Seattle Times; Nancy is on vacation this week.)